greg rucka
What Are You Reading? with special guest Janice Headley
Big Questions
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly column where we successfully answer the question in the title. Our special guest this week is Janice Headley, events coordinator, publicist and “ambassador of awesome” for Fantagraphics.
To see what Janice and the Robot 6 crew have been reading this week, click the link below.
- September 11, 2011 @ 02:55 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M.| Retailers on print vs. digital; Yang on comics, Christianity
Justice League #1
Retailing | Sacramento, Calif.-area retailers are relatively unconcerned about DC Comics’ newly launched digital initiative or an immediate threat to their bottom lines from digital comics. “I just see it as another way of kind of expanding the whole readership,” says Dave Downey, who runs World’s Best Comics. “If you missed an issue of Spider-Man, and you can’t find it anywhere, you can always go online and read it that way.” However, Kenny Russell of Big Brother Comics sees a time, “years off,” when that will all change: “It’s inevitable, and this is kind of the first step. In no time, iPads are going to be good enough, and it’s going to be easy enough, and it’s going to come out the same day where people are going to just read their comics on their iPads.” [Sacramento News & Review]
Comics | Gene Luen Yang explores the tangled history of comics and Christianity, both of which, he points out, were started by a bunch of Jewish guys who loved a good story. (Good-sized excerpt at the link; full article requires free registration.) [Sojourners]
- September 1, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Rucka, Burchett launch Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether
Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether
Writer Greg Rucka and artist Rick Burchett launched their swashbuckling steampunk webcomic today, Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether. As announced back in April, Rucka said the comic is “steampunk, pirates, western thing,” noting it would feature airships, floating islands, gunslingers and sword fights.
“Swords are cool. People fighting with swords are cool. Airships are cool. Cowboys are cool. Pirates are cool. Clockwork men are cool. Smart, savvy, witty women are very cool. Laconic gunslingers? Totally cool. Steampunk? Frosty,” the strip’s “About” page reads. “That’s what Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether is, that’s what it’s about. The adventures of the Lady Seneca Sabre and those she meets along the way as she travels the Sphere. Who she fights, who she foils, who she befriends. It’s about adventure and romance and excitement and, to paraphrase the great Zaphod Beeblebrox, ‘really wild things.’”
They plan to update the comic every Monday and Thursday, and they’re also selling a limited edition print (above) featuring the title character. Go check it out, or at least add it to your RSS feed for updates.
- July 11, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Revamped Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark performing well
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Broadway | Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the retooled $75 million Broadway musical, took in $1.7 million for the week ending this past Sunday, which is above the $1.2 million the producers have indicated they need to reach to stay viable. The amount made it the No. 3 musical for the week, after Wicked and The Lion King. [Associated Press]
Legal | Robert Corn-Revere, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s general counsel, discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. EMA, which sought to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. He notes that the court drew upon the history of comic book censorship in reaching its conclusion to reject the ban: “Citing the amicus brief filed by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, it noted the crusade against comics led by Dr. Frederic Wertham and observed that it was inconsistent with our constitutional traditions. The Court traced the history of censorship that targeted various media directed toward the young and held that restricting depictions of violence could not be justified under established principles of First Amendment law.” [CBLDF]
- June 28, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Comic sales fall 11% in May; CBLDF joins fight over Utah law
Fear Itself #2
Publishing | May marked the worst month of the year for the direct market since January as sales of comic books and graphic novels fell 11.21 percent versus May 2010. Chart watcher John Jackson Miller chalks up the decline to a combination of retailers ordering more Free Comic Book Day titles than “for-profit” books and publishers’ summer events heating up a little later this year. Marvel led Diamond Comic Distributors’ list of top comics for the month with Fear Itself #2, followed by the first issue of DC’s Flashpoint. Avatar topped the graphic novel chart with Crossed 3D, Vol. 1. [The Comichron]
Legal | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has joined a coalition that includes booksellers, media companies and the ACLU of Utah in seeking to permanently stop enforcement of a 2005 Utah statute that would regulate Internet speech that some consider “harmful to minors,” including works of art, graphic novels, information about sexual health and the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. The law has not gone into effect because Utah consented to a temporary injunction until the case can be decided. [press release]
Awards | A reminder: Online voting ends today for the 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The winners will be announced July 22 during Comic-Con International in San Diego. [Eisner Awards]
- June 13, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Rucka and Burchett to launch steampunk webcomic in July
Greg Rucka
The Stumptown Trade Review posted an audio interview with writer Greg Rucka yesterday, covering a wide range of topics, including an announcement for a new webcomic he’s doing with artist Rick Burchett.
Called Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether, Rucka describes it as a “steampunk, pirates, western thing,” noting it would feature airships, floating islands, gunslingers, sword fights and “hopefully witty dialogue.” It’s planned as an ongoing webcomic, and they’re looking to launch it in early July.
Rucka added that they hope to make money off of it so they can fund American Soldier, which he said doesn’t have a publisher yet.
- April 25, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Stumptown
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week’s guest is Alex Segura, executive director of publicity and marketing at Archie Comics. But we’ll always know him as the guy who founded The Great Curve, the blog that would one day morph into Robot 6.
To see what Alex and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …
- April 3, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim | Nicola Scott
Teen Titans 93
For longtime comic readers like myself, there’s nothing quite like when a team book introduces a new character to the mix. This Wednesday, artist Nicola Scott gets to bring Solstice, a character she designed, into the Teen Titans mix with the release of Teen Titans 93. In addition to discussing Solstice, Scott notes the shift in tone/sense of fun that series writer J.T. Krul has brought to the series; how she considers herself a character-driven artist; as well as the lessons learned from collaborating with the likes of writer Gail Simone/dealing in subtext (among other topics). At the end of the interview, she invites fans to suggest characters we’d like to see her draw in the future–be sure to chime in with your ideas in the comments section.
Tim O’Shea: Over at the Source, you expressed part of what appealed to working with J.T. Krul on Teen Titans. ” Character, tone, direction. He has blown me away.” What is it about Krul’s approach to character and tone that appealed to you?
Nicola Scott: Over the last couple of years the tone of the book seemed to have become quite dark, and seemed to be missing youthful energy and a sense of fun. The characters weren’t quite connecting in the way DC hoped for them to. Straight off the bat JT had them feel exactly like their regular selves. The comradery had returned too and that’s such an important ingredient with the Teen Titans. The script for the first issue was fun, a great recap of the characters and who they are to each other. There were some gags and some drama and it felt like young people with huge responsibility. Another ingredient that I think was important, was bringing it back to the core members. A couple of new additions is fine but when most of the cast is unrecognizable to outside readers, it’s hard to grow the audience.
- March 28, 2011 @ 03:06 PM by Tim O'Shea
C2E2 | A round-up of news and announcements from this weekend
C2E2
The second C2E2 convention, hosted by ReedPOP in Chicago, wrapped up yesterday. Here’s an attempt to round up all the comic-related news that was announced at various panels during the show. I’d be surprised if I didn’t miss something.
While Marvel and DC Comics were both in attendance and held multiple panels, Marvel dominated in terms of the number of announcements, which is no surprise — DC tends to favor announcing new projects and creative teams on their Source blog rather than at conventions these days. I only point this out after seeing the long list of Marvel announcements and the far fewer DC ones in my summary below.
• Marvel confirmed earlier reports by officially announcing the creative teams for the two “Big Shots” titles they’ve been teasing, Daredevil and The Punisher. Irredeemable/Amazing Spider-Man writer Mark Waid will pen Daredevil, with Amazing Spider-Man artists Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin illustrating.
“Tonally, it’s still very much a crime series, but we’re toning down the noir a bit and playing up the high adventure a bit more,” Waid told Comic Book Resources. “He’s the Man Without Fear. I want to see that constantly. I want to see him diving face-first into perils that would make Green Lantern shriek like a little girl.”
- March 21, 2011 @ 02:15 PM by JK Parkin
What will the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ mean for Kate Kane?
From Detective Comics #859
I’d be lying if I said that, while following coverage this weekend of the Senate’s repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” I didn’t briefly wonder what this development would mean for Kate Kane, the new Batwoman.
After all, she’s the most notable (if not the only) comic-book superhero whose origin is tied to the law prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military: While a cadet at the United States Military Academy, Kate is discovered to be in a secret relationship with another female student. When confronted with the allegation, Kate chooses to resign from West Point rather than lie. The scene, depicted in Detective Comics #859 by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, is a powerful one.
“Way back — waaaay back — when I knew I was going to be writing Kate, and I knew we’d be telling her origin story, I knew I would write this scene,” Rucka said in a well-timed post that appeared Sunday at DC Women Kicking Ass. “This was, in many ways, the first scene I wrote for Kate Kane, one I kept rewriting and rewriting in my mind until the time came to put it down on the page. I’d done a lot of research into West Point, and the Cadet’s Code of Honor had stuck with me, stuck with me all the more in the face of DADT. In my mind’s eye, even before ever seeing the Bat Symbol of encountering Batman, this was where Batwoman was born — in Kate’s need to serve something greater and to, at the same time, remain true to herself.”
Williams, who’s sharing writing and art duties on the new Batwoman series, commented this afternoon on the repeal, saying, “It’s just sad that this policy ever occurred in the first place. It was grotesque and shameful that we ever went there. And terrible that it took nearly two decades for the folly to be properly dealt with.”
“Now to figure out what this may mean for Kate Kane,” he continued, “we’ll need to acknowledge this in some way, but properly in the plot, much like the policy’s enforcement affected the plot for Batwoman’s origin. Like it informed her past, setting her on the path she now has, this new progress will have to inform her direction at some point in a significant way.”
As curious as I am about how Williams & Co. will address law’s repeal, I’m even more interested in how later writers — those a decade or more removed from the policy — will address the character’s past. The origins of Marvel’s character operate on a sliding scale, with someone like Tony Stark first being tied to the Korean War, then the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War and now (I think) the conflict in Afghanistan. But how will DC revise Batwoman’s history when “don’t ask, don’t tell” is just a relic of the shameful past?
- December 20, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
J.H. Williams III provides bookplate for new Greg Rucka novel
The Last Run by J.H. Williams III
If you’re a fan of Greg Rucka’s comics work, especially Queen & Country, you might already know that he has continued Tara Chace’s adventures in a series of novels, the latest of which comes out Oct. 26. And if you buy the book and mail in your receipt, you can get a really beautiful bookplate drawn by J.H. Williams III. Check out Rucka’s blog for details on how to get one.
- October 18, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Retired … or “Doomed?”
Doom Patrol #121
(This starts out cynical, but it gets better.)
DC’s superhero line is essentially an intellectual-property farm. Every new issue cements the company’s hold on its existing characters and/or introduces new characters for future exploitation. If, by some chance, a particular story turns out to be Art, so much the better. The important thing is to maintain those property rights.
Accordingly, it’s rare that a character is “retired,” a la Jack “Starman” Knight or Tommy “Hitman” Monaghan, when his story has reached a stopping point. A little while back I wrote that maybe the New Teen Titans had reached their own peak at the end of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s original run. Originally I wanted to revisit that, and list a few more titles which perhaps might have benefited from similar retirements. Let’s do that, at least briefly….
- July 8, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Take a look at Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett’s Colonial America comic
Art by Rick Burchett
Greg Rucka has expressed a desire for at least two years to write a comic set in Colonial America, and judging from this blog entry, he’s getting his wish.
The two pages of art by Rucka’s former Batman collaborator Rick Burchett are labeled “Gowanus,” which I’m going to go out on a limb and guess is a reference to Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, site of the opening skirmish of the Battle of Long Island — the first major battle of the American Revolution.
Hopefully we’ll learn details about Gowanus (if that’s indeed what the comic is called) next month at Comic-Con.
- June 9, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Greg Rucka teases new project with Rich Burchett
by Rick Burchett
Writer Greg Rucka, who recently moved on from DC Comics, yesterday teased a new project he’s doing with Rich Burchett on his blog.
Lamenting the fact that he wasn’t going to make it to C2E2 this weekend due to a stomach bug, he posted the design sheet for a “mystery figure” who will star in a new comic he’s doing. And he didn’t show all his cards in his post — in fact, he kept the identity of the artist a secret and offered up some Stumptown prizes for whoever could guess who he was working with. It didn’t take long for a fan to guess correctly.
No word yet on what the comic is called or who will be publishing it.
- April 17, 2010 @ 10:41 AM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | Greg Rucka assures ‘there is no drama here, folks’
Greg Rucka
Writer Greg Rucka has relaunched his blog with a post that aims to head off speculation about his departure from DC Comics and the previously announced Batwoman title.
“There is no drama here, folks. It is as it appears,” Rucka wrote this morning. “I’m stepping away from DC to pursue different opportunities. Nothing more nefarious than that. Nothing less sinister. Time is a commodity that is as precious to me as it is rare, and there’s simply not enough of it.”
In the post, Rucka stressed that he tells stories — whether they’re in the form of comics, prose novels or video games — and will continue to do so.
“All I’m doing in stepping away from DC is carving time to tell the stories that have been whispering in the back of my mind for years,” he continued. “The last Carrie Stetko story. The next case for Dex Parios. The story of a family’s service to their country, told over two hundred years. The woman in blue. The other one, looking for a soul. The kids who take what they’re told. The killer who guards a park. The soldiers forever at war. The spy with one wound too many.”
During his spotlight panel at WonderCon on Friday, Rucka mentioned, among other projects, the continuation of Stumptown, the potential for a new Queen & Country series, and a collaboration with Detective Comics artist J.H. Williams III that he describes as “Bladerunner meets Blake’s 7.”
- April 4, 2010 @ 10:47 AM by Kevin Melrose